Politicians spend more to commute by RAAF jets

Federal politicians taking Air Force-operated VIP flights are costing taxpayers $50,000 for every hour spent in the air.

Documents obtained by Fairfax Media call into question the Abbott government's insistence that the use of luxury RAAF jets to shuttle ministers and MPs to Canberra from as far away as Perth is often more economical than individual commercial fares.

A single four-hour flight to Perth costs taxpayers over $200,000.Credit:Andrew Meares

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne defended the use of a Defence-leased Boeing 737 to transport three government ministers and six MPs, including Don Randall, one of the Liberals at the centre of the expenses scandal, from Perth to Canberra for the opening of Parliament this week.

Mr Pyne said on Tuesday: ''It's probably cheaper than bringing them all individually on Qantas or Virgin.''

Advertisement

But the first breakdown of the true cost of VIP flights, obtained under freedom of information laws, suggests that cannot be the case. According to the figures, which include the cost of leasing aircraft, maintenance and airport costs, a single four-hour flight from Perth to Canberra costs the public just over $200,000.

Based on that, the cost of flying the nine Liberal politicians from Perth is $22,000 a head - or $12,500 if the seven family members accompanying them are factored into the bill. Those figures do not include the cost of flying the jet empty from Canberra to Perth.

By comparison, a business-class flight from Perth to Canberra on Qantas costs $1850 this week.

Finance Department guidelines state the defence minister ''will only approve [VIP] travel where he or she is satisfied that no suitable alternative means of transport is available''.

In the latest schedule of ''special purpose flights'', which is tabled in Parliament every six months, the government lists an RAAF flight from Perth to Canberra as costing just $11,370.

A Defence Department spokeswoman said the schedule listed ''additional costs'' and the fixed costs were not available separately.

The FOI application, submitted by former public servant Stephen Brown, shows Defence incurred $81.8 million in fixed costs in the calendar year 2007-08 relating to the operation of 34 Squadron.

The VIP aircraft used by both the Howard and Rudd governments notched up a total of 1702 hours flown - making an average hourly rate of $48,000 for every hour in the air.

Fairfax revealed in October that Howard ministers, led by former treasurer Peter Costello, were regularly using the business-class jets of 34 Squadron to commute to Canberra.

Mr Costello racked up 60 flights. Based on the figures revealed under FOI, that is likely to have cost $2.8 million in fixed and additional costs.

Mr Costello is in Lima, Peru, for the World Bank but his partner at ECG Advisory, David Gazard, said every flight taken by the former treasurer was authorised by the Defence Minister which had been ''standard practice for decades''.

The Defence spokeswoman said the department could not comment on the value for money of VIP flights because it does not compare costs with ''civilian airlines''.

The documents show Defence paid up to $420,000 a month to lease individual aircraft.

Maintenance costs were $20 million for the 12 months. Mr Brown, a former bureaucrat, added $25.1 million for pilot and other staffing.